October 8, 2001

Two years after having initiated a quality process, the efforts of Advanta France have been successful: last September 13, the company obtained the ISO 9002 certificate for its sugar beets seeds production and pre-cleaning activity based at Nérac in the South West of France.

The decision to commit oneself to a TQM (Total Quality Management) was taken by ADVANTA France Management in 1999. Rather than spreading it to all departments, the choice was made to get it started in a pilot department, extending it next to other company activities. The concern for improving our performance is what mainly motivated the decision: be more efficient and cost-effective. The goal was also to offer our clients higher reactivity, better traceability and better follow-up.

Quality process is long. It took the teams 2 years to, first, plan and write the quality system, then implement it. The system was evaluated and readjustments were performed. Last, the certification audit took place on September 12th and 13th.

Achieving ISO 9002 certifications at first audit is a truly success for the entire company. It is a capital step since this experiment should open the way to new quality projects. We will settle down to certifying other departments so that in the end, the entire ADVANTA France company gets to be certified.

The Nérac Seeds Production Department turns out each year about 50% of sugar beet seeds sold by Advanta in Europe. This represents an area of 400 to 600 hectares of production, distributed among 200 to 300 producing farmers.

Nurseries are sown in August. In February, plants are lifted and planted at the farmers’ sites to set up the production program ordered by the Company. Seeds are harvested in August. They are cleaned at the Nérac Unit before shipment to Tienen, in Belgium where is located the sugar beet seed factory for processing.